Copiers, scanners, and other devices that scan images from source media and convert those images to data are common in business and home environments. A typical scanner scans one or more images from source media, converting those one or more images to data. A software program typically interprets that data and converts it to a data file for storage and use. Such a data file may be in GIF, JPEG, or other format. A copier typically scans one or more images from source media. A digital copier converts those one or more images to data and stores that data. That stored data is then interpreted by a controller or other device within the copier, and transmitted to a marking engine within the copier. The marking engine produces one or more copies of the image on destination media.
The source media used with a copier, scanner or other such device can be any media that can be placed onto a scanning surface. Such source media may include standard paper, bond paper, glossy paper, transparencies, photographs, and a number of other different kinds of media. The properties of the image data scanned from these different source media may vary according to the source media type. For example, image data scanned from a transparency often has blurry edges, as a result of the transparency of the source media. As another example, image data scanned from one side of thin or translucent source media having images printed on both sides may include undesired background material bleeding through the source media from the opposite side. To ameliorate these problems, copiers often include controls for varying the contrast or other properties of the copies printed on the destination media. However, to the extent these controls are effective, their use is a matter of trial and error for the operator, resulting in waste of destination media as well as user frustration. While scanners do not typically offer such controls, imaging software utilized with scanners typically includes such controls in software, where those controls relate to the display of the scanned data. These controls result in similar limitations and problems as described with regard to the copier controls.